Charges ﬁled for alleged pedophile offender

ASPEN – An Aspen man is scheduled to answer charges Monday that he kept child pornography on his computer.

On Friday, Arnold Mordkin filed 15 counts against Aedan Teague Hopper, a 20-year-old who attended the University of Colorado in Boulder during the fall semester.

The charging document includes six felony counts of sexual exploitation of a child, inducing or enticing; three felony offenses of sexual exploitation of children, sell or publish; four felony transgressions of sexual exploitation of a child, possession of 20 or more items; one felony count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor; and one misdemeanor offense of unlawful sexual contact.

The sexual-exploitation counts carry prison terms of four to 12 years and can be sentenced consecutively, Mordkin said.

Hopper is out of jail on $20,000 bond after he turned himself in to the Aspen police last month after the agency issued a warrant for his arrest.

Court filings suggest that he solicited girls to provide him nude pictures and “engage in explicit sexual conduct for the making of sexually exploitative material.”

Hopper allegedly told police that he is a “pedophile” and a “social leper,” according to court filings.

Also in place is a mandatory protection order that prohibits Hopper from having any contact with, as described in court papers, the “protected parties.” Hopper also was ordered to turn over his passport to authorities.

Details of the investigation are limited because of a court order that redacts all information in the case file that could lead to the identification of the victim or victims, including their ages and hometowns.

While details about the victims are not public, an application for an arrest warrant says that Hopper “induced” the victims “to expose parts of their bodies for Hopper’s own sexual gratification.”

Hopper had been under investigation since November, when the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office learned from the Texas Department of Family Services/Crisis Intervention that a young girl had reached out to the agency’s website for young victims of sex crimes.